1. Field
The invention is in the field of assembling electronic circuits, and particularly assembling electronic circuits on printed circuit boards and on breadboard devices. The invention is also in the field of kits for building electronic circuits and component parts for building electronic circuits.
2. State of the Art
It is common practice in assembling electronic circuits to lay out and form conductive traces on a broad side of a printed circuit board with the traces laid out to connect individual circuit components. Usually the conductive traces are formed on one side of the printed circuit board, referred to herein as the back side of the printed circuit board. Holes extend through the printed circuit board and through conductive pads of the conductive traces formed around each hole on the back side of the printed circuit board. The individual electronic components required for the circuit are usually attached to the opposite side of the printed circuit board, referred to herein as the front side, by passing the leads of the components through appropriate holes in the printed circuit board from the front side and attaching the leads to the conductive pads of the traces on the back side, usually by soldering the leads to the conductive pads surrounding the hole through which the lead is passed. After soldering, any excess length of the component lead extending beyond the solder joint is usually cut off.
Where circuits are assembled on a mass production basis, automated soldering equipment is used. However, in many instances, a circuit is hand soldered by a person assembling the circuit. This is particularly true where electronic kits are provided for educational purposes or where a new circuit is being designed and tested. For example, a kit for a particular type of circuit, such as a radio, may be given to or otherwise obtained by a child to assemble for educational purposes. The kit will usually include a printed circuit board and the necessary electronic components to be connected by soldering to the printed circuit board to make the desired circuit. The soldering of the components is usually not an essential learning step to be performed by the child and, soldering can be difficult and dangerous for a child. First, the person doing the soldering has to have a soldering iron. An inexperienced person can easily burn himself or herself with the soldering iron. Also, excessive heat can damage and destroy electronic components. Thus, if too much heat is applied to a component during soldering, the component can be destroyed. Further, if substitution of components is a part of the learning exercise in assembling and working with the circuit, or is part of designing and testing a new circuit, soldering the components to the printed circuit board is counterproductive in that a particular component may have to be unsoldered to disconnect it from the circuit to replace it with a substitute component.
For explanation purposes, FIG. 1 shows the back side of a prior art printed circuit board 20 having conductive traces 22 thereon. Holes 24 extend through the printed circuit board and intersect selected conductive traces 22 at desired locations for connection of leads from electronic components to be used in the circuit to be constructed. Usually traces 22 include conductive pads 26 around the holes 24. The conductive traces 22 and holes 24 are arranged to connect various electronic components in a desired manner to provide a desired electronic circuit. The individual electronic components required for the circuit are then attached to the traces, usually by inserting component leads through appropriate holes from the front side of the board, and soldering the leads to the conductive pads 26 of traces 22 surrounding respective holes 24. FIG. 2 shows the front side of the prior art printed circuit board 20 of FIG. 1. The particular printed circuit board shown is used in an educational kit for building a particular circuit, so the front side of the printed circuit board includes representations 28 of the components to be used in the circuit and instructs a user as to which components go where and which component leads are to be inserted by the user in which particular holes 24. FIG. 3 shows a component 30 mounted on the front side of the board 20 with leads 32, FIG. 4, from the component 30 inserted into and extending through appropriate receiving holes 24 through the board 20. FIG. 4 shows the backside of the board 20 with the component leads 32 of component 30 shown in FIG. 3 extending from holes 24 through conductive pads 26 of respective conductive traces 22 in position to be soldered to the respective conductive pads 26. The leads 32, FIG. 4, extending from the backside of the board 20 are soldered by the user to the conductive pads 26 surrounding the holes 24 through which the leads 32 extend to connect the component leads to appropriate respective traces 22. The ends of the leads then extending beyond the solder connection can be cut off.
Various breadboarding devices are available for use in designing electronic circuits where the leads of electronic components can be inserted into connectors on a breadboard device which provide connections to other selected components. The connectors are usually arranged in predetermined patterns so that a user can create desired connections between circuit components by selecting the particular connectors for particular components. However, such breadboarding devices generally require special knowledge of the devices and how they work and are not generally used in merely assembling a particular desired circuit in an educational kit. An educational circuit building kit usually provides a printed circuit board specifically configured for the particular circuit to be built along with the various electronic components to be assembled to the printed circuit board. There is a need for a simple and easy way of connecting and interchanging electronic components in building electronic circuits, particularly in connection with educational kits for circuits where the user does not have special electronic design knowledge, and in connection with breadboard devices where it may be desired to be able to easily connect, disconnect, and change components used in designing and constructing a circuit.